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2016 Fields Family Wines Shiraz Postage Stamp Vineyard - USA, California, Central Valley, Lodi (4/4/2022)
Full disclosure: I make wine from this very vineyard myself. I’m sure some will think I’m talking up my own wine by extension, but I can assure that’s not the case. The wines are very different anyway.
Ryan Sherman of Fields Wines made wine from this old own-rooted Lodi vineyard from, I think 2006 to about 2017 or '18 or so. After having been fallow for a year or two, I took the fruit from 2019 an onwards. Not sure why Fields stopped, but I seem to recall they had planted their own Syrah at their estate and wanted to focus more on that. And since it only makes 25-50 cases per year, it might have been too much trouble.
Vineyard has an interesting history: the cuttings were smuggled in from Australia and planted in 1964 on the sandy soils around the river there. It never went through any agricultural quarantine or any of the stuff you’d have to do today to bring cuttings in, but so far the vines seem to be doing well. Phylloxera doesn’t like sandy soils, so that’s why it’s probably survived on its own roots for so long. Anywhere else it would probably have been toast.
Tasting note: On the nose I smell oak overpowering the fruit and my mind is primed for it being heavily oaked as I delve in. And on first sip, yes, I did notice it. But by the second sip it’s already at the back of the profile and as you continue to taste, it really becomes clear it’s just the exact right amount, actually. Wonderfully supple, feminine and round, without ever being too heavy. It rides that line, for sure, but stays just on the right side all along at 13.8% ABV. Elegant and luxurious - feels like a $120 wine from one of the cult guys, just lighter and less in your face. This is not at all Pax lightness, just a scoch down from the Paso big hitters. Great stuff. (94 pts.)
Posted from CellarTracker